


Rapping At Their Chamber Door

by BlackCrowQueen



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Action, Adventure 1, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, My attempts at them anyway, Suspense, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCrowQueen/pseuds/BlackCrowQueen
Summary: The crew have a visitor, and they have little choice but to deal with it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	Rapping At Their Chamber Door

The radar went off with its steady _Beep beep…! Beep beep…!_

Everyone in the tank rustled in their beds. Sigrun wasn't as gung-ho about it as she was on their first day. Instead, she rolled over in her bed. Tuuri groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, not particularly in the mood to have to get up early and translate her cousin's report. She was still so sleepy...

Mikkel sat up and was about to grab the disinfecting gear, when their kitten started to turn into an orange and white fuzzball at his feet. He tensed, still hearing the beeping radar getting louder.

"Sigrun," he said in a deep whisper.

The captain sighed and opened one eye. In the low light of their furnace, she saw Mikkel point at the fuzzy, distressed Kitty.

She shot up, eyes wide. In a fluid motion, she grabbed her rifle and hopped off her bunk, landing nimbly between Mikkel and Reynir. Mikkel shoved face masks at the two non-immunes.

"What-" Reynir began, still half-asleep, but Mikkel cut him off with a "Shh!"

Sigrun turned off the radar's alarm as she strode off, glancing at the clock on the screen. 0324. Lalli wasn't due back for hours. She got her game face on and went to the front door in a couple long, light steps.

She looked through the peephole. A troll, just a couple meters away, crawled towards the tank. It was pitch black outside, but the thin layer of snow on the ground helped outline its bulbous size and multiple legs.

She stared with annoyance and disbelief as the troll, with all of its stupid legs, crawled over the line trigger for their bomb perimeter. She frowned. This thing was either incredibly smart or incredibly lucky.

Sigrun tip-toed back to their sleeping quarters. Everyone now sat up in their beds, alert and nervous. Emil held his own rifle. She put a finger to her mouth in the universal gesture for quiet, and looked back to the door. If luck was on their side too, the troll would pass them by.

But by the way it was making a beeline for them, Sigrun doubted that.

Emil waved at Sigrun to look at him. _'How did it find us?'_ he asked, not actually speaking but hoping she could lip read. She shrugged. She had an idea, but now was not the time to talk about it. They could hear the troll's muffled shuffling and breathing.

"HeLLo..? Hhh...h-hElLo?"

A shiver went down everyone's spines. Kitty fuzzed to maximum, her back arched.

_Scrape scrape...knock. Knock…. knock._

"AnYoNe...tHeRe..? hhhgg…"

"HeLp..ggh..sO..CoLd…"

_Knock knock._ "LeT uS iN..."

Tuuri pressed her back to the wall of her bunk, holding her bedsheets like a little kid.

Reynir shut his eyes, thinking, _Please go away! Please!_

Ỹ̷̪͚͒̉̓̑̋͜o̸͎͐̽̔̕ų̸̭̏́̐͋̔̒.̷̢̫͚̱̦͉͌

Reynir's breath caught in his throat. His blood ran cold.

W̵͉̭̓̂̄͂̇̀ę̵̭̩̥̬͂̒͊̎͋̅͜͝ ̸̜̞̍͛͒̐͠k̵͉͚͍͓̰͍̉͂̽̂ͅn̵̋̎͊̓̏̆̑ͅo̵̭̼͚̯͗̈̈́̒͘͝w̷͕̮̥͍̖̩̿̍̃̚͜ ̴͕̈́̊ȳ̴̻͛o̸̤̖̼͛͒͑u̷̢̧͎̤̟̫͒'̸̧̖͗̆͝r̶̘̈́͌̔̽e̴̙̖̣̼̪͊ͅ ̵̫̙͓̔̃̎i̶̱͖̓̅͑̒n̴̨̞̥͉͛̽ ̵̭̀̓̄͠ť̶̨̡͉͉̞̭̙͋̄͌h̸̙̳͖̬̠̃ë̴͖̗͕̰͌̑͋̿r̵̢̦̖͇͇̠̣̍ë̴̯̮͈͎̲̾ͅ

The troll's black speech hammered in his mind. He glanced around but no one else reacted the same.

L̶̖̗̠̠̰̠̍̋̕e̵̖͕̿̋̐̀̅̚t̸̩͚͙̫͛͛̀͝ ̸̩̳̱͖̋ŭ̵̧͈̠̉̋͋̋͘š̴̳͒̂͘ ̶̠̞̹̼̃̔̈͒͒͠i̸̺͔̗̽̓̇n̴̜͓͖̖̏̉̅̉

_Wham!_ The loud crash against the door made everyone jump. Kitty hissed and ran under Tuuri's bunk. _Wham!_ It happened again, the troll throwing itself at the tank.

Reynir whispered frantically, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I messed up! I'm sorry-"

"What did you _do_?" Tuuri hissed.

"I-I talked to it, I guess?? Or it sensed that I'm a mage? I don't know, it knows we're in here now, I'm sorry…!"

Sigrun glared at him. "Shut u- WHAH!"

Her spat cut off as their room suddenly jostled and tilted forty-five degrees upwards. They all screamed in shock, crashing into each other. Tuuri slid and hit the wall. Sigrun clung to the door frame. Mikkel and Reynir almost pinned Emil underneath them.

"It's trying to flip us over!" Sigrun yelled.

The tank shook as the troll struggled to squeeze itself underneath, metal creaking.

Mikkel managed to stand up. “Everyone get to the other side!” he said. “Our combined weight will keep it from tipping over!”

They scrambled to get to the higher side of the tank, grabbing to whatever they could on the wall to keep themselves from falling. Once they were in place, the tank shuddered, and then slammed on the ground with a loud THUD. Tuuri almost fell over again. All their blankets, guns, and belongings crashed back onto the floor.

Everyone still stood by the wall, their eyes wide and tense, their hearts pounding. Between the few inches of steel, they could hear the troll’s gargled, uneven panting.

“It’s too big to just slide underneath,” Sigrun breathed. “I saw it.”

“What are we gonna do?” Emil whispered, his bedhead now worse than before.

Sigrun pushed off the wall and picked her coat off the floor. "We're gonna have to kill it. Won't leave us alone otherwise." She pointed at Emil. "You're with me, Mr. Right-Hand-Warrior."

Emil clenched his jaw and started putting his gear on.

Mikkel stepped forward. "Sigrun, _let me_ do it. With your arm you shouldn't be moving it unless absolutely necessary."

"It _is_ 'absolutely necessary'," Sigrun frowned. "You're not exactly cut out for this, Big Guy."

Mikkel frowned and was about to speak when more loud bangs startled them. It sounded like the troll was trying to rip the driver's side door open.

Sigrun hit the opposite wall a couple times. "C'mere you big idiot."

The distraction seemed to work. The heavy scuttles started to sound their way around the tank.

She whipped her head back at Mikkel. "No time to argue. Guard 'em." She pointed at the non-immunes.

"Do you have a plan?" Emil said as he strapped on his rifle.

"Yep." Sigrun strode to the closest window and peeked through. The troll had made its way to the passenger side door.

She grabbed a flashlight. "We split. I'll face its front and be bait. You kill it from behind. It's fat and has a lot of legs, so be careful. Remember: blades before bullets," she ordered, pulling out her dagger.

Emil took in a shaky breath, and took out his own dagger. "Okay."

Sigrun squeezed his arm reassuringly, then slowly started opening the main door. It squeaked a little, and she froze. Nothing happened though; the troll continued to scrape and bang around on the other side. She opened it the rest of the way, both of them shivering from the frigid air rushing in.

Mikkel came and closed the door behind them as they stepped out. It was a clear, moonless night. Sigrun tugged her collar closer to keep out the cold, and then gave the hand signal for them to separate. She went towards the front of the tank; Emil went around the back.

Sigrun crouched at the front grill and turned on the flashlight. She pointed it and waved it at the ground in front of her. The scrapping and clawing stopped. Sigrun poised with her knife, a small grin on her face. _That's right. C'mere…_ , she thought.

On the other side, Emil slowly peeked around the corner. He saw for the first time its spider-like appearance: a swollen abdomen and eight twisted legs. Its back was turned, so he couldn't see whatever horrors made its face. Maybe just as well.

Emil braced himself, clutching his dagger. _How do I reach its weak points?_ he thought. A stab to the head or chest would be quickest, but its fat butt was in the way. He needed some height against this thing. He looked at the ledge of the tank's giant treds. That would do.

Trying to be quick and quiet, he stepped up on the tred cover. But his foot slipped on the fresh layer of frost and ice on the metal. His heart shot up to his throat as his knee and fist hit the tank with a startling _BANG_.

The troll whipped around and jumped on him, snarling. All Emil could see were teeth and arms. He yelled, holding it back with his blade. It clawed wildly at him.

Sigrun, who had before just started to see the troll peak out towards her light lure, leaped forward at the noise. She slashed at one of its back legs.

The troll cried and stopped its assault on Emil, turning to Sigrun. She shoved the flashlight in its face as it did. It winced and screeched, blinded.

Sigrun wasted no time, slicing its neck. Emil joined in, stabbing it in the back. It was over quickly. They took all the precautions to make sure that the troll was well and truly dead. The duo stood for a moment, catching their breath, little clouds forming around their heads.

Under the flashlight they could finally see the grotesque details of the troll. Some of its legs… or arms… were coming out of its chest. It had two heads, merged down the middle into one face. In fact, it looked like it was fused all the way down, though it became almost indiscernible.

"Hrmm. Looks like a pair. You see this sometimes," Sigrun whispered. "A couple gets the rash and they just go out together."

"So it's like a mini giant...," Emil said, downcast.

Sigrun nodded. She looked him over. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah… I might have some scratches and bruises though."

"Eh, that's nothin'."

Both of them got the feeling they were being watched. They looked up and saw the others watching from the passenger side window. Reynir gave them an awkward smile and a thumbs up. Tuuri stared, mesmerized by the dead troll. Mikkel just looked tired, but relieved.

Sigrun gave a thumbs up back, and started walking back to the front door.

Emil stuttered, "What about this thing?"

"That's morning's problem," she said and yawned. Emil followed her, not wanting to be alone with the creepy troll corpse in the dark. Sigrun continued, "Now that it's dead the cold will kill off everything in it."

"…Where do you think it came from?"

"Probably some old farm house kilometers away. It must've had some good ears."

Mikkel let them back inside, took their contaminated coats, and started disinfecting the duo.

"Good job guys," Reynir said from a safe distance.

"See?" Sigrun smiled. "No sweat."

"It seems like Emil ended up being bait instead," Mikkel frowned. He handed the Swede a couple of band-aids.

She shrugged. "You've always got to be ready to adapt in the field."

Emil finished patching himself up and yawned. "I'm going to bed," he said, disgruntled.

The rest of them followed suit. Despite their exhaustion, it unnerved the kids having a troll corpse right outside. They lay in their beds, tense. What if it somehow rose from the dead? Or what if another one showed up?

Actual sleep came slowly and disjointedly for them, but it came nevertheless.

~~

Morning arrived, but the sun did not shine. Not yet anyway. Lalli strode through the frost ridden air, hands shoved in his pockets. Even in the dark he could see with his mage vision.

Which is how he saw the giant foriegn lump lying next to the tank. His eyes grew wide, and his hand went for his weapon even though he didn't sense any life. He approached it cautiously. In the morning twilight, he could barely see the dark, frozen pool of blood it lay in. He was filled with confusion, bewilderment, and worry.

A dull knocking and a muffled "Lalli!" made him jump. He looked up, and saw Emil smiling and waving at him through the window.

Lalli relaxed and went over to be let inside. He was immediately bombarded by Scandinavians: Mikkel cleaning him up, and Emil and Sigrun going on and on about what he _assumed_ was the dead troll.

He peeked around and saw Reynir and Tuuri nearby. Everyone seemed tired, but okay. He sighed a little in relief. Once Mikkel seemed satisfied with his disinfecting regiment, Emil guided Lalli over to Tuuri, talking like he always did.

She waved to him. "I'm glad you're okay," she said.

Lalli blinked, his eyes heavy. "What _happened_ last night?"

Tuuri gave him an animated retelling of the night's events.

Lalli's worried look returned. He now noticed the bandages peeking out under Emil's sleeves. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to help," he said. He looked down at the ground, a little cloud of guilt forming around him.

"It's okay…," Tuuri smiled, trying to be positive.

"No, it's not," Lalli frowned. "You all were in danger. I must've missed something…"

Emil and Tuuri exchanged some quick words. Emil said something to him.

"He says that it's not your fault," Tuuri translated, "and I kinda agree. Sigrun said it probably came from a house kilometers away."

Lalli raised his hands to his temples and shut his eyes. "It doesn't matter…! It could happen again and-" He stopped, and tried to calm his heart.

He breathed, sighed and lowered his hands. Exhaustion hit his body again like a wave. "Lemme just tell you my report," he muttered.

"Oh… alright," Tuuri said hesitantly.

Lalli ignored their concerned faces. As he helped Tuuri with her driving notes, he kept thinking about the shadowed corpse outside. Yes… there were countless trolls out there. It _could_ happen again.


End file.
